1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx Makes You Wonder …

Wonder who else might join him in Plaque-ville, for one thing

1986 Topps (?) Jimmie Foxx - Card of the Day

If fanciful theories about alternate history get your imagination revving, then you might really enjoy the 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx baseball card:

Heck, even calling this thing a 1986 Topps card is a bit revisionist, since technically this baby is part of the 2010 Topps Vintage Legends Collection.

In case you don’t remember, Vintage Legends was a 25-card issue inserted in Series Two packs of the 2010 base product.

But, by all appearances, and for our purposes here, this is a 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx.

And more than that, this is a 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx card showing him as a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox.

Hmmmm…

A Red Sox first baseman on a 1986 Topps baseball card?

Sounds familiar, somehow.

Like, maybe …

Yeah, everyone knows Billy Buck was the first baseman on that American League champion Red Sox team, thanks to maybe the most infamous boot in baseball history.

And speaking of history, here’s where that “alternate” bit comes into play…

Just what would have happened had Double X been playing first base for the Sox in Game 6 of that ‘86 World Series instead of Buckner?

Well, considering that Foxx died in 1967, his mere appearance in an October game nineteen years later would have really shook some things up.

But even setting aside the miraculous, you have to figure there is a decent chance Foxx would have fielded, or at least knocked down, Mookie Wilson’s grounder heard ‘round the world.

Most MLB first basemen would have, in fact, including Buckner most of the time.

Heck, give the late All-Star another shot at that same ball, and chances are the outcome would have been different.

Same for shifting Wade Boggs to first or bringing in Jim Rice to man the sack … or Field-of-Dreaming Jimmie Foxx to make the play.

Change just one little thing, and the 1986 Red Sox would have been The Curse-Breakers, leaving the 2004 Sox as … well, who knows.

And if you don’t think any of that could have happened, you’re probably right.

But then you catch a glimpse of that 1986 Topps Jimmie Foxx baseball card, and you have to wonder.

In case you are, indeed, wondering…Jimmie Foxx was born 117 years ago today.

He Was Legion

You may or may not remember that Buckner actually finished his big league career back in Boston after a three-year detour in the American League West.

His very last game came against the Rangers in Arlington on May 30, 1990. He went 1-for-4 that night against Rangers starter Kevin Brown. Yeah, that Kevin Brown, though there have been a few choices over the years.

Read about Brown’s rookie card and the associated disambiguation right here.

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Double X is the only October 22 currently enshrined in the Hall of Fame, but that’s going to change, probably in a matter of months. Among other players born on this date were…Wilbur Wood (1941), Ichiro Suzuki (1973), Robinson Cano (1982), Corbin Burnes (1994), and the immortal Jamie Quirk (1954).

Ichiro is eligible for the Hall on the next ballot.

Cano will be eligible a few years after that, though he shot himself in both feet and once in the behind for good measure.

And Burnes still has time to add onto his Cooperstown case.

Wood basically threw every pitch for the White Sox a couple of summers in the 1970s and lived to tell about it. He probably won’t ever get in, but there just may be less deserving guys already enshrined.

So, how many of these players do you think eventually end up in Cooperstown?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam

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